A Best Practices Guide for Mitigating Risk in the Use of Social Media

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Social media continue to grow across the globe, and the United States federal government is no exception. The administration and Congress actively and increasingly use social media to communicate, to take information in, and to collaborate across boundaries. Yet the benefits of increased involvement through social media also raise new risks to the security of agency information.

This guide was written to help government managers, IT staff, and end users understand the risks they face when turning to social media to accomplish agency missions, and to mitigate those risks. The guide follows the publication of several other recent IBM Center reports which examine the current and potential use of social media by government agencies, including:

• Assessing Public Participation in an Open Government Era by Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer, Joseph P. Goldman, and David Stern
• Using Wikis in Government: A Guide for Public Managers by Ines Mergel
• Using Online Tools to Engage—and be Engaged by—The Public by Matt Leighninger

This guide complements these reports, presenting a view of the cybersecurity risks intrinsic to social media use and, more important, how to mitigate them. We hope that its suggested risk mitigation activities inform government agencies on how best to leverage social media in accomplishing their missions more effectively and efficiently—and more securely.